Freda

Hmm, not a bad idea. I've already emailed poor Bernard, I can just visualise his thoughts as he presses the 'delete' button - god, not this mad bitch again...but any and all ideas have to be worth looking at.

My garden might - I said might - get some much needed attention. I don't see housework being a beneficiary...ugh. I'm looking forward to doing more cooking/baking, I like cooking, I just resent being expected to do it. And, now that I am not coming home from the stables tired, stiff and sore, the dogs will benefit hugely. We all went round a deserted track this morning, the greyhound had a few semi-energetic canters, the crossbred bitch ran for the hour we were out, the elderly terrier became selectively deaf until I was able to sneak up on him towards the finish...all now home, muddy and very pleased with themselves.

Yes, that's certainly true...! Colin was a polarising character, but was very often bang on the mark with what he said or predicted.

But, Chief, as well as the Covid-19 mess there is also the fact that Rita is flat broke. Even if lockdown ends sooner than anticipated ( it won't) what the hell are we going to go racing with? Colin's bags of kumeras?

Absolutely, even before the Covid-19 situation, the drop in turnover at Melbourne in spring should have been a wake-up call that excessive levies and penalties to take money from the punter would, eventually, produce a backlash. Good call, Richard.

Brilliant

You are so right.

I for one will be happy to see him back...but it seems we are getting a few different posters nowadays and it would be a shame if he puts them off contributing.

At the risk of appearing a snooty, self-important creature, I don't think there's much to think with.

Good to have your input, Tim. We are all going to become avid commentators, there is only so much TV one can watch and books one can read !

I would think that provisions 3- 1 and 2 precludes public training rracks, but not, necessarily, private properties where the provisions are met. Certainly, having our local track open for training ( although appreciated by me for reasons of wound management) was more for the purpose of getting racing off to a flying start than any 'wellbeing' notions. And safety protocols were, with the exception of two trainers, ignored.

Our prescient management obviously has worked out it has backed itself into a corner. They were gung- ho to keep things rolling so racing could start as soon as possible once levels were pruned back. That, of course, was never the reason for allowing horses to be exercised, and the protocols that needed to be adhered to just, well, weren't. A ticking time bomb, and the right decision.

Agree, Chief...test, test, test, which is still not being done. Asymptomatic people can therefore have infected tens, hundreds before lockdown came into force. And, scarily, many are paying lip service only to distance and cleaning protocols. What I see around me is frightening. One young woman whom I forcibly pushed out my door told me to 'stop being anal ' and several of her friends were out on the piss night before last. I kicked out a flatmate's g/f who had arrived unannounced, because she had no notion of any safety protocols at all. Flatmate packed a sad and left too....so at least a quieter- and cleaner - house now....but they only left yesterday, lockdown day. No effing idea.

I agree in principle, i see distance and safe practice protocols NOT happening all around, but stables not the only guilty ones. Most of the horse population is in and around the Waikato, other areas also mostly rural or very close, and many options with pre training/agistment properties exist close by. At Riccarton, a city track with not a great equine focus close by, there is a certain difficulty in finding suitable properties to suddenly take hundreds of horses. The notion that ' business ' as usual can continue is very wrong, however.

I'm thinking, poodle, the only place I'd shift him has a lock on the door.

Perfectly sensible. The intent of the directive as opposed to the actuality of what is happening, is quite another matter.

Certainly, if at all possible, some linited training access must be available. Transport companies are scrambling to get as many horses shifted in the short available window, there is simply not the time and/or grazing facilities available to adequately deal with the numbers of horses to be placed. Ive managed to get half ny team away late yesterday and today, but there is simply no available space anywhere for the rest at short notice. I have one who, injured at Ashburton by a defective running rail, needs twice daily dressing of the wound as well as exercise to facilitate healing, he must have a buddy....as the former off-track exercise area is now unavailable due to the sale for housing, we have to have some options here. I can vouch for the fact that Michael takes this seriously for sure, far more so than many othets who by their utter stupidity place us all at risk.

As it has turned out, they didn't introduce a ' fit for purpose' Racing Act. Quite the contrary, to the point that the thing has had to be pretty much re-written. And look at the hand-wringing pricks now, wailing for yet another Govt. hand out. Shockers.

He is, the poor bugger, he has five sisters.

My brother has a repertoire very similar......and he [ and all of us ] just LOVE Mother's custard squares. You'd never buy another one.

Do you have a list of these shockers, or do you just make them up?

With Rita now collectively wringing it's hands and pleading for yet more dosh, Avondale might be where the axe falls, perhaps?

He doesn't give up, does he?

Go early, go hard....what an effing joke...cruise ships disgorging passengers still, tourists flouting isolation requests, racing is at least making an effort to show responsibility.

I've never been there..but I've been told that the track [ not facilities ] is very good. Is that not, now, the case?